More mountain bike trails are on the way across NSW after a number of projects successfully secured funding from the Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Fund, including Narooma, Eden and Taree.
Funding
When the fires hit NSW in 2019/2020 it was devastating with many lives and communities impacted. The Australian and NSW governments co-funded a $4.5 billion bushfire support program, called the Bushfire Local Economic Recovery (BLER) Package.
It was aimed to support job retention and creation in bushfire impacted regions, strengthen community resilience and reduce the impact of future natural disasters.
Narooma Mountain Bike Trails Hub
Over the weekend, Narooma Mountain Bike Club secured $3,914,356 from BLER for Stages 2 and 3 of their mountain bike trails.
The grant will allow them to construct up to 70km of brand new mountain bike trails and a trailhead, as part of the Narooma Mountain Bike Trails Hub.
In addition to the existing 30km, the new trails will create a 100km mountain bike network for Narooma. Better yet, the trails will form a key hub of the South Coast regional network of trails, boosting the region's tourism appeal.
The Narooma Mountain Bike Club will release the draft plan on July 28, which we will share when available.
Eden Mountain Bike Hub
The Eden Mountain Bike Hub has received $4,524,317 in funding to help the region combat the seasonal nature of the local tourism sector by leveraging the natural attributes of the area, including the Nullica State Forest.
This project will fund up to 60km of mountain biking trails, the trailhead, amenities, signposts and other infrastructure.
Originally the club received a $25,000 grant which enabled them to do a proper analysis of creating a mountain bike network. Here, they put in a proposal and received the $4.2 million needed to turn Eden and the South Coast into a mountain bike mecca.
Kiwarrak Mountain Bike Park (near Taree)
Kiwarrak Mountain Bike Park received $403,980 after the Black Summer Bushfires completely destroyed the park. This money will help to create accessible trails for those with adaptive bikes, trails of various difficulty levels to suit riders of all abilities, toilets, change rooms and undercover BBQ areas for community use.
“Mountain bike riding is a fast growing recreational activity across Australia. Being able to add an additional 130 km of mountain bike trails to NSW is huge and riders will come from near and far. The economic boost to these regions from mountain bike tourism will be long lasting and will help the communities recover” said Kim Lavender, Bicycle NSW Communications Manager.
You can follow the progress of these projects on the Bushfire Local Economic Recovery here.
Applications for Round 3 - Bushfire Recovery Grants, $280 million, will soon be available for projects to benefit communities impacted by the Black Summer Bushfires.
